1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular steering damper mounting structure that dampens a steering directional movement transmitted from a road surface to a handlebar via a front wheel and a front fork.
2. Description of Background Art
A known vehicular steering damper mounting structure includes a steering damper disposed between a head pipe and a fork bridge on a side of a front fork and to extend in parallel with the head pipe (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2005-96735).
The arrangement disclosed in FIGS. 1 and 2 of Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2005-96735 will be described below.
A vehicle includes a head pipe 6h disposed at a front end of a vehicle body frame 6. A front fork 2 is steerably mounted to the head pipe 6h via a steering stem 5.
The front fork 2 includes left and right fork pipes 3, 3 connected by a fork bridge 4 including a top bridge 4a and a bottom bridge 4b. The fork pipes 3, 3 support a front wheel 1 via an axle. The steering stem 5 is mounted vertically across the top bridge 4a and the bottom bridge 4b. A handlebar 7 is fitted to the top bridge 4a.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3 of Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2005-96735, a tubular damper 10 as the steering damper includes a damper case 11 and a damper rod 12 that slides inside the damper case 11. The damper case 11 has an end mounted to a stay 8 disposed on the head pipe 6h, while the damper rod 12 has an end mounted to a stay 9 disposed on the bottom bridge 4b. The tubular damper 10 is disposed forwardly of the head pipe 6h and the bottom bridge 4b.
When a handlebar steering angle is 0°, a central axis D1 of the tubular damper 10 is in parallel with a central axis S of the steering stem 5 and the head pipe 6h.
The bottom bridge 4b has a front surface disposed forwardly in the vehicle of the head pipe 6h. To dispose the central axis D1 of the tubular damper 10 in parallel with the central axis S of the head pipe 6h, it is necessary to protrude the stay 8 on the side of the head pipe 6h largely forwardly relative to the stay 9 on the side of the bottom bridge 4b. As a result, the entire tubular damper 10 protrudes largely forwardly from the head pipe 6h. This makes it necessary to allow a large space in areas around the head pipe 6h for the tubular damper 10 to pivot during steering by the handlebar 7. A front portion of the vehicle therefore becomes large.
In addition, the tubular damper 10 is largely away from the central axis S, about which the fork bridge 4 pivots. Consequently, when the portion of the tubular damper 10 mounted to the side of the bottom bridge 4b rotates during steering, the damper rod 12 strokes largely relative to the damper case 11 of the tubular damper 10. This results in a large-sized tubular damper 10.